Our birth stories: Early laboring

Wyatt

During the 12 O’clock hour my contractions were anywhere from 5 to 10 min apart…and Nate wasn’t home. On his way home from work he planned to grab a few snacks we could bring with us when "labor fully kicked in" and also I'd been craving bagels that morning.  Well, labor was kicking in NOW! I called Nate around 1:15 and he was trying to head home but the grocery store was jam-packed.  I told him, “just hurry, because they’re faster!” In the 1 O’clock hour they were anywhere from 3 to 10 min apart. It didn’t look like I’d have a full hour of 5 min contractions because they just kept getting faster. Though in the beginning they had guessed I was just having practice contractions, through texts, my care team began to realize I might be in the official beginning stages of labor. I called Nate again, around 1:45.  He was at a second store and I said, “you need to come home NOW, I don’t care about those things!!” I had been on the couch for about and hour and a half to see if they slowed down but I was just finding it harder and harder to concentrate on anything.  I couldn’t even text my friends to tell them I might be in labor because I couldn’t focus on the letters that formed the words.  I tried to finish gathering our things but I couldn’t begin to think of what was needed…so I just lay back down.

  When I called my Rachel (our doula and good friend) and she had to walk me through a contraction or two she realized this was really progressing and she headed my way immediately.  Nate got home at 2:15 and I told him to eat some lunch because I didn’t know when he’d be eating again.  He offered me a bagel but eating didn’t sound good at all. The Zags basketball team was having one of their biggest games of the year (Go ZAGs!) so Nate turned it on while he ate, but I immediately shouted “You can’t can’t have that on! Turn it off!” I needed silence. I spoke to my midwife, Alli, and she walked me through a couple contractions too, reminding me I didn’t need to have polite phone etiquette during them!  She was just heading into town from an appointment in Birch Bay and needed an hour to get the Birth Center room ready so we were told we should arrive at 3:30.  This made me so nervous, I wanted to come in right then because I was having contractions 2-3 min apart for up to 90 seconds.  Just like Wyatt, labor was flying by, with lots of enthusiasm. 

Rachel arrived and by then I was on my hands and knees because that felt better.  She started squeezing my hips and that provided some relief.  Nate was running around trying to gather last things and load the car.  I had a bag packed and we had one packed for the baby, but things were still in different places around the house and Nate hadn’t packed a bag yet.  He kept asking questions, like “is this a good amount of olive oil for the baby’s bum?” or “should we grab another blanket?” and I just kept saying “I don’t care, I just want to go.” Later on we discovered that the snacks Nate had spent all that precious time getting were forgotten.

There was very little time between contractions and I was breathing through them, on my hands and knees with my doula squeezing my hips. Even though it wasn’t close to 3:30 yet, Rachel said we could head to the birth center.  I had a contraction in the elevator and again at the bottom and again when we got to the car. And suddenly, Nate was running back upstairs.  He couldn’t find his wallet.  I had a couple more contractions, leaning against the car with my doula when Nate came running back, wild eyed, and discovered that his wallet had already been loaded in the car. 

I had a few contractions on our way to the Birth Center, one when we got out and one as soon as we walked in the room. Alli, calmly said she was ready to check me out.  Her eyes got wide when she actually saw…I was at a nine and then some!  I had most likely gone through transition at home on my couch while waiting for everyone else to be ready for me! 

Ava

True to Ava's personality, she was going to join the world in her own time in her own creative way. 

Tuesday night around bedtime the contractions began again. For the third night in a row. This time they were even more intense. They were regular and uncomfortable by 11:45 pm. About 4-8 min apart. Around 2:00am I woke Nate up to to say that I thought that THIS night of contractions was really it. We called Beth, my midwife, at about 2:30. She said that it sounded real and that we should meet at the Birth Center at 3:30. (Remember how we were at the birth center at 3:30 for Wyatt too?? But in the day?? I couldn't stop thinking about that.) We called Rachel and she said she’d be there on time. We called Darcie and Phil (thank goodness for a brother/sister in-law in town) who were on call for Wyatt at night and they said they’d be on their way in minutes. We texted our good friend, Gretchen the plan so she could expect Wyatt in the morning because she was on call for the day time. 

Phil and Darcie arrived by 3:00. Wyatt had woken up while we were getting ready to leave so Nate had told him to go back to sleep but hadn’t mentioned we were leaving so as not to get him even more awake. We went over the basic instructions while I had several contractions and we were on the road by 3:15. Rachel was there when we arrived and took a picture of me (looking quite perky I must say.) 

When Beth got there at 3:30 we put contacts in and prepared for labor. (We learned later that Wyatt woke more and began yelling. Phil, not knowing how to comfort him suggested he come down to bed with them. About halfway down the stairs Wyatt discovered that Phil really wasn’t Daddy and began screaming. This lasted about 10 minutes. He then asked to go back to bed because that was where he was supposed to be and he promptly fell asleep. The rest of his morning went great!) 

Rachel has the hip squeezing technique down!
The counter pressure gives such relief. 

The hip and lower back discomfort needed help.

It was the middle of the night and everything was so quiet on the streets around the birth center. I had forgotten to transfer my “labor mix” to the iPod so I asked for Nora Jones in hopes that it would relax me. I forgot to have it changed at any point along the way so every time I hear her I think of Ava’s birth. 

Beth checked my progress and I was at about 5 cm. 

Liam

Around 5:30 in the morning on April 15th I woke up. This was normal because Liam always had a dance party around this time and I was peeing multiple times a night at this point. He was particularly active. I got up to go pee and when I stood up after that, a stream of water ran down my legs. I moved around. More water. I checked it carefully. I began shaking. The adrenaline started to kick in. My water had never broken on its own in the early stages of labor. But I felt pretty sure this was it. I didn’t have any noticeable contractions though. Just like Liam, he was getting the job done without a big fuss. I woke Nate gently, mentioned what was happening and told him to continue sleeping . There was no way I could relax at that time. I was too wide awake…and STARVING. I am always grateful for my ability to eat when I need food. I made myself a bagel with cheese…I ALWAYS crave bagels when I’m in labor which is weird.

By then it was about 6:30 and I called Gretchen to give her an update.  I knew she would be praying for things and passing information on to our circle of friends. Wyatt and Ava were surprised that I was already up when they came out of their bedroom at 7:00 since I had been sleeping until at least 8 these days. When Nate came up he gave me some time to contact the other important people to fill them in: My parents who would be heading up when they were ready, to watch the big kids, my friend Anna who would cover before they got here, Rachel, and of course, Beth, our midwife.

Since I wasn’t having any contractions of note my midwife told me I had 24 hours from my water breaking to get into full blown labor. First, I tried to sleep a little more. Then, we decided we might as well go on a family walk. It was a gorgeous, blue sky, warm day. We decided to stroll down by the marina. We got a solid 2.5 miles in. I was cracking up since my water was still slowly leaking so I felt as though I’d peed my shorts. No big deal, lady in labor walking by!

We did a little photo shoot of our family of 4 knowing Liam would be coming soon, one way or another. After taking a shower and eating some lunch, Rachel came over to see how things were going. I started taking black and blue cohash which can sometimes help labor along and contractions eventually started to show up. I had contractions every 12 or so minutes through noon, 1:00, 2:00. Rachel drove me to my already scheduled appointment so we could see if any progress was happening. Nate stayed home with the kids.

My parents were on their way up but we asked if Anna and her kids could come over just in case Nate had to take off before my parents got there.  Thankfully I was already at 4 cm so I was considered to be be in labor. Still, we decided I might as well go home and do some more walking in order to have a change of scenery and see if I could get things moving faster.  As soon as we got home around 4:00 and Rachel and I started walking the hills of our neighborhood, it was like a switch flipped. My contractions were coming every 2.5-5 minutes, they were long, and I had to stop to breath through them as we went.

On this gorgeous spring day more than one person working in their lawn commented on the fact that I looked “ready any day now” but they didn’t know how right they were. The steady contractions continued at home so we called Beth at 4:30 and said we were ready to come back already. Of course she needed to get things set up and was back in her office so we were told to get there at 5:00. My parents had arrived and our friends had left so we just made sure we had everything we needed, loaded up, said goodbye to the big kids and were on our way. Hanging out on the ramp up to the birth center and having a few contractions in the glaring sunlight was a bit disconcerting. I felt so in tune with my body but somewhere in my brain knew that these were not typical beautiful day activities for me.